The True Story Behind The Investigation of Lucy Letby

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Lucy Letby, a former neonatal nurse, became widely known in the United Kingdom after being found guilty of a horrific crime. In 2023, she was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others (with a seventh attempted murder charge following later), making her one of the most prolific female serial killers in British history. However, a new Netflix documentary, The Investigation of Lucy Letby, re-examines the case and raises questions about her guilt, suggesting she might be innocent.

This is the story of Lucy Letby, according to the bombshell Netflix documentary.

Lucy Letby was born on January 4, 1990. She studied at the University of Chester, earning a degree in Child Nursing. She completed her clinical training at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Northern England and, after graduating, began working there full-time in the neonatal unit. Dr. John Gibbs, a retired pediatrician, remembers her as someone who didn’t initially seem remarkable, as stated in a documentary.

In June 2015, a troubling pattern emerged at the Countess of Chester Hospital: babies were unexpectedly dying. One of them was Zoe (her name and her mother’s identity have been changed for privacy in a documentary about the events). Zoe’s mother describes a difficult birth, after which Zoe was placed in intensive care and an incubator. Initially, she was improving, but she suddenly collapsed and couldn’t be saved, passing away on June 22nd. Three other babies died at the hospital on June 8th, 14th, and 22nd of that year. By February 2016, the number of deaths had climbed to nine, and by the following June, it reached thirteen. Dr. Gibbs, a consultant at the hospital, stated he had never witnessed anything like it in his 21 years of practice.

An investigation revealed a disturbing pattern: Lucy Letby was the only nurse present whenever a baby unexpectedly died in the neonatal unit. Despite initial confidence in her skills, the unit manager eventually moved Letby from nighttime to daytime shifts. While nighttime incidents decreased, the documentary claims that collapses and deaths then began happening during the day.

Letby was arrested on July 3, 2018. During a search of her home, police discovered troubling items, such as confidential patient handover sheets and documents detailing the babies under her care—many of which concerned those who had become ill and died. She had collected over 250 of these documents, organizing them by date. When questioned, she stated she had unintentionally taken them home.

Lucy Letby had been released on bail twice before her third arrest on November 10, 2020. The following day, she was charged with the murders of eight babies and the attempted murder of ten others. She was held in jail without bail for 23 months before her trial began on October 10, 2022. During the trial, prosecutors described how Letby allegedly harmed the babies, claiming she removed breathing tubes or overfed them, causing breathing difficulties. They argued she intentionally varied her methods to avoid detection.

Baby Zoe had an unusual skin discoloration and a rare air bubble in her bloodstream, a condition called an air embolism. The medical examiner, Dr. Evans, determined that Zoe’s health rapidly declined because someone intentionally injected air into her IV. Letby also communicated with coworkers about the babies who died and searched for the parents of those babies on Facebook, but this evidence wasn’t conclusive.

Letby was accused of harming two babies by giving them insulin unnecessarily, a highly dangerous act. Medical experts considered this a key piece of evidence in the case. Investigators also found notes at Letby’s home where she’d written things like “I killed them,” “I am evil,” and “I did this.” While much of the evidence wasn’t direct proof, it strongly suggested her guilt. Detective Superintendent Simon Blackwell stated that, based on the evidence, Letby was the only possible person who could have committed the crimes. Throughout the trial, Letby insisted she was innocent and denied all charges.

On August 18, 2023, Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven others. She received a life sentence.

I just finished watching The Investigation of Lucy Letby, and it’s really made me question everything I thought I knew about this case. Everyone jumped to the conclusion that Lucy Letby was a serial killer, but this documentary throws a lot of doubt on the original trial. Now representing Letby, Mark McDonald, a criminal defense barrister, is arguing she’s innocent, and he makes some compelling points. He highlights the lack of any real motive, the absence of CCTV footage, and the fact that no one ever actually saw her harming any babies. The infamous post-it notes, often presented as a confession, are re-examined. McDonald argues they weren’t an admission of guilt, but rather notes from a therapeutic exercise where she was encouraged to write down her feelings – and they actually contained words like ‘slander’ and ‘discrimination’, suggesting she felt she was being wrongly accused.

A 2024 article in The New Yorker by Rachel Aviv also questioned the court’s decision, suggesting the problem might not have been with nurse Lucy Letby, but with the hospital itself. Letby was assigned the most critically ill babies because of her experience, so it’s not surprising she was present when they experienced problems, according to one expert. The prosecution emphasized that deaths decreased when Letby was removed from the unit, but the unit was also downgraded at that time, meaning it received fewer seriously ill patients. Consequently, a drop in mortality rates was inevitable, the expert explains.

Since the case concluded, McDonald has publicly questioned the verdict, and his efforts to raise doubts are gaining momentum. Notably, Sir David Davis, a current UK Member of Parliament, is among those advocating for Letby’s release, believing the trial resulted in a wrongful conviction and calling for a retrial.

I’ve been following this trial closely, and it seems like everything really hinges on the testimony of Dr. Evans. What’s particularly troubling, as revealed by McDonald, is that a highly respected judge – someone not even involved in this case – apparently warned the trial judge that Dr. Evans doesn’t seem to offer impartial opinions and hasn’t considered all the available medical evidence. The documentary showed a close-up of the letter detailing this concern, though they kept the judge’s name confidential. It’s a really significant detail, and makes you question the objectivity of the expert testimony.

To check if Evans was a trustworthy expert witness, McDonald reached out to Professor Shoo Lee, the original author of the research Evans used to convict Letby. Lee published his findings on air embolisms in 1989 while in Alberta, Canada. As detailed in The Investigation of Lucy Letby, Lee stated, “If my research was misunderstood, that’s a serious issue.” After reviewing the evidence, Lee concluded that the observed skin discoloration wasn’t consistent with air embolisms, but rather with a lack of oxygen. This raises questions about the validity of Letby’s conviction.

Lee brought together a group of fourteen doctors who all agreed that there was no medical proof of wrongdoing causing harm or death in any of the seventeen cases presented at trial. They found no evidence of murder. Regarding the case of Zoe, Lee pointed out that the mother should have received antibiotics to protect the baby from infection, but unfortunately, she didn’t.

Dr. Gibbs, a pediatrician featured in the documentary, believes Letby was rightly convicted and imprisoned. However, he confesses to a lingering doubt, wondering if they might have mistakenly identified the perpetrator. He explains, “It bothers me that no one directly witnessed her committing these acts.”

Those involved in the investigation, along with the mother featured in the documentary, continue to believe Letby is guilty. While police presented new evidence concerning nine additional babies in July 2025, the Crown Prosecution Service decided against pursuing any further charges against Letby on January 20, 2026.

McDonald has submitted a request to the Criminal Cases Review Commission for a retrial. 

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2026-02-05 02:07